


Where the Cliffs Rise

by Luluannabell



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-03-16
Packaged: 2019-11-05 15:35:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17921564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luluannabell/pseuds/Luluannabell
Summary: Hundreds of years after the events of httyd 3, a group of three accidentally visit Berk and meet a dragon. Which wasn't supposed to exist. Placed in our current time, this work is my version of a sequel.





	1. Waves Crash Below

**Author's Note:**

> It's been a few years since I wrote a fanfiction, and I haven't ever written one for httyd, but I need this story, my boyfriend needs this story and I figured some of you might want to read this story, so here goes.

“This is Berk. This Viking settlement was found only a few years back. Some accounts of the time let us assume all inhabitants were killed in the last war fought on Berk. As there has been no secure water route found for experts to inspect the island, the tourism board has not yet cleared it for visitation.”

“I wish I could go there.”

As the waves crashed and the loudspeaker continued rambling in its brassy manner, Freya leaned over the railing, droplets spraying her face. Arvid had his back to the railing, leaning against it much like her, but not looking at the island, instead looking at her excited face. They’d been on this trip, what, fifteen times? But she was still so excited whenever they got to the island. It’s probably the reason he and Eretson, who’d only ever been called by his last name, continued tagging along.

Speaking of, Eretson, the oldest and largest of the three, had sat down on some chair, staring at the sky for the last fifteen minutes. He turned his head towards Arvid just to give an annoyed grimace in his direction. Arvid simply shrugged and looked at Freya’s face, her brown locks flying everywhere in the salty sea wind.

“Just imagine all the treasures left behind!” She started excitedly gesturing with her hands. “Helmets, weapons, maybe even some structures! Oh, maybe they’ll even find some old texts, or something! Wouldn’t that be cool?” She started rummaging in her bag for her little binoculars, pointing them towards the island. She’d got them as a Christmas gift last year from her parents, since she’d complained about wanting to see Berk more closely. Arvid didn’t think she ever saw anything, though. That island was completely green, overgrown with trees and shrub. No way you could find any helmets or weapons in the trees.

“You’d find out if you could climb cliffs, or swim rough seas. Which you can’t.”

“Maybe they should build a bridge over to the island. Or use a helicopter!”

“Who’s going to fund a helicopter just to look at a Viking island?”, Eretson groaned from his seat. “Vikings are cool and all, but no one funds this kind of stuff. You’re gonna have to wait for someone to get over there with the tiniest of boats to get past all the rocks and get through those enormous waves.” Freya turned around to him with a grin.

“Did you know they’re planning that?”

“Really?”, Arvid exclaimed. Freya nodded and turned towards the island again, putting her binoculars back into her bag.

“Yeah! One big boat to get them out here, and then a smaller boat, or even a submarine, to get them to the island!”

“Woah.”

Suddenly, a large wave shook the boat more than normal and the three of them grabbed onto whatever they could to keep their balance. Once it passed, Eretson joined Arvid and Freya at the railing and looked towards the waves.

“What was that?”

The pre-recorded message from the loudspeaker stopped blaring and made way for a different voice.

“This is the captain speaking. Due to abnormal wave patterns, all passengers are to go below deck immediately.”

Freya and Arvid made for the stairs, but waited for Eretson, who was still staring at the sea. Freya stepped towards him again and grasped his arm. He had turned a sickly white, like they'd never seen before.

“Eretson, come on. We need to go below deck!”

“There’s something in the water.”

Confused and curious, Arvid also looked towards the waves. Beneath the surface, a dark shadow glistened for a moment before another large wave came and threw him off his feet. Eretson grabbed his hand and pulled him up again. Freya held onto his arm still, shaken by the might of this wave.

“What-“

“Shut up. We need to get below deck.”

Then, cold. Wet. Arvid found his clothes soaking full of water, and a hand on his coat. He looked around. Eretson held on to him, keeping him afloat while he got his bearings back and began paddling. Freya kept a hard grip on Eretson’s arm, her bag splashing around behind her. The boat was slowly swaying away, someone up on the deck, a ring was thrown but the boat was rushed away by the waves. Freya shouted something, but the crashing waves were so loud Arvid could not hear. Eretson let go of him and dove towards the ring. He started to feel the weight of his wet clothes and thrashed his legs furiously while pulling off his jacket to let it float away in the water. Freya noticed and followed suit, swallowing water but staying afloat until Eretson returned with the ring and all three grabbed it with one hand to stay together. Eretson motioned towards the island – Berk – as it was the closest by, and the boat had been carried off by the waves. They began paddling towards the island.

There was no knowing if the boat would be able to return fast enough for them to not freeze to death in this water, the waves continuously growing larger, when it was already so far away, so they had no choice. The closer they got to Berk, the more the waves pushed them towards it, and the easier it got to move towards it. Arvid could feel pebbles grazing his legs as they got closer, being thrown upwards from the turbulent waters. He was out of breath, his legs tired and cut up when they finally reached the shore.

 

 

A storm was brewing above them, so they were wet and getting wetter. The three, still, laid there for a moment, away from the waves, Freya coughing up some water, Eretson staring into the rain.

“Eretson… What was that in the water?” He gulped and gave a shrug.

“A whale?” Arvid looked towards the waves. A whale has no reason to push a boat upwards, or even be in these waters in the first place. Eretson got to his knees and looked after Freya, while Arvid stumbled onto his feet and looked around. The shore was overgrown with roots and bushes all around the pebbled area they were in.

“I can’t believe we’re still alive.” Freya stopped hacking up water and stood up. Her bag was still around her neck, and she unceremoniously turned it upside down to dump its contents – 90 % water – onto shore. She picked her belongings back up from between the pebbles – the binoculars had entered the sea to never return, it seemed.

“I always wanted to come to Berk, but not like this. I’m freezing.”

Arvid could feel it too – the wounds on his legs burning from the salty water, his jeans completely cut up, the hairs on his body standing up because of the cold, and the adrenaline from the pain racing through his head. Eretson walked towards the thick bushes.

“We need to get through the shrubs, find somewhere to stand where the rain won’t get us. And then pull of our clothes.”

“Agreed.”

Freya nodded somberly and the three began checking the shrubs in the freezing rain, trying to find a place they could crawl into. Arvid noticed a square stone behind a shrub, pulled the branches away furiously and looked more closely.

“Guys, there are stairs here!”

Eretson and Freya came over while he continued to pull branches away from the steps. It seemed the way up was fairly clear, a few plants growing in cracks and some moss – but the way to another area, beyond them.

“Let’s.”

Eretson went first, Arvid followed him. His legs were tired, and he could hardly do more, but they needed to move quickly. When he looked behind him, Freya was climbing the steps as well, even more out of breath than he was, pale in the face and blue on the lips. She pulled her face together and started pulling off another sopping wet layer from her upper body. Arvid continued on and could hear the splashing of water behind him as Freya squeezed the life out of her shirt before following them.

Raindrops were still coming through the thick woods, so this was not a place they could stay, but Eretson just stepped further up, finally breaking through another layer of shrubs. A sound of amazement broke through his lips as he stepped away from the stairs, letting Arvid see as well.

Buildings.

Run-down, mossy, overgrown, sure, but unmistakably buildings. Freya climbed up behind him, with eyes wide, shaking from cold, and wonder in her voice.

“Wow.”

Eretson began looking around and waved his friends over to one of them.

“It looks dry inside. There’s a fireplace, some old wood… It’ll be hard getting a fire started, but this seems like our best bet.”

He started pulling his own shirt and trousers off and just threw them onto the old wooden floor next to the door. Arvid did the same and caught Freya’s eye. She looked uncomfortable, but once she was inside took off her own clothes. Eretson was looking around the fireplace and shouted in hurrah when he found some stones lying about. Arvid stared over at Eretson, as much away from Freya as he could, and simply started wiping water from his chest and arms with his hands. Some sparks flew from where Eretson was, but there was no fire starting. Freya began wandering the house.

“There’s... so much. All of these books… They look like they’d break if we touched them.”

Arvid looked at the bookshelf.

“They probably would. They’ve been here for a while.”

While they looked around, marvelling at what had apparently been left in this house, Eretson clunked around with the stones he’d found, producing spark after spark, but none taking hold in the wood in the fireplace. It was clear he was getting frustrated.

“Get me one of those books, maybe they’ll burn. I need a proper fire starter over here.”

Freya gasped.

“You can’t burn these! You don’t know what’s written in them, maybe someone can open these and find out what they wrote down back then, hundreds of years ago.”

Eretson gave her a pretty fed-up look and scoffed.

“Well, if you don’t find something else to burn, I’d rather stay alive than leave these books here. We are going to freeze to death. By the looks of you, you’re going to freeze first! Get me something over here!”

Arvid looked around for something to burn that wasn’t a book, when a shadow hushed past the corner of his eye. Reflexively, he turned to it, and jumped back.

“What the… What is that?”

A large, black… lizard slithered its way into the building. Well, no, it had like legs and stuff. It walked in a fluid motion, slowly, inside, glaring at Arvid. Freya and Eretson both jerked their heads toward it and stared, frightened. Eretson tried to move sideways past the lizard to safety.

The thing was large. Easily twice the size of Arvid, black with a white underbelly from what he could tell, and… it seemed to have wings, which it spread menacingly inside the home, knocking over knick-knacks left from old times, bumping into the bookshelf, throwing pages onto the ground and growling at Eretson. There was no going around this thing, and the grunts echoing off the walls made it clear it wasn’t here for fun, either. Eretson and Freya had no escape route.

“Run, Arvid.”

“Is this a goddamn dragon?”

“Arvid!”

The dragon roared, shaking the building, causing Freya to fall to her knees. She was already weakened, pale, blue in the face, and the dragon seemed to notice. He turned to face her directly and kept creeping closer to her. Arvid’s feet had taken roots in the ground, he could not move an inch. Eretson seemed similarly scared, and Freya could only put her hands up in front of her in some kind of weak defense stance, hoping the dragon would not devour her. Arvid could not watch. He closed his eyes and hoped he found the strength to run when he undoubtedly heard the crunching sounds of bones.

Instead, silence.

And then some kind of purr.

Arvid opened his eyes and found the dragon apparently snuggling up to Freya. She was as confused as he and Eretson were but began stroking its scales like she was stroking a dog, and it seemed to like it.

“What the hell is happening.”

Eretson slumped to the ground and groaned.

“We clearly died in those waves.”


	2. How to Meet a Viking

“Anyone who agrees we’ve died on that boat, give me an ‘Aye’.”

Eretson grunted an unmotivated ‘Aye’, while Freya shook her head. They were sitting in a circle, their backs turned to the lit fireplace and a dragon lying on their laps, warming their front. Freya had picked up one of the books it had thrown onto the floor and was flipping through it. It seemed more stable than they had thought, though definitely old, worn out and dirtied.

“I mean, I can’t quite read all the runes, but the pictures speak for themselves.” She held a page up for the two to see, it clearly showing a large dragon spewing flames. The pages had yellowed, and splotches of ink seemed to simply be missing, other parts having some other kind of dirt marring the letters and images. “The people of Berk knew what dragons were. They knew all about them. This is, like, an encyclopaedia of dragons.”

“Right. So, what kind of dragon is this supposed to be?”

She flipped through the pages quietly. Arvid looked back at the fireplace, making sure their clothes, which they had hung above it, didn’t catch fire. While all of this was weird, it was extremely fortunate this dragon showed up and could spew fire, otherwise they would still be sitting in the cold. But now the place was slowly warming up. Having closed the wooden door as much as they could, the heat was trapped inside. Outside, the storm was still going on. They’d heard thunder already.

“It looks like this one, I guess?”

She held the book up again, this time showing an all-black dragon, it’s wings completely spread on the page. Eretson scrutinized the picture and looked back at the tail that was curled up next to him.

“The tail looks a little bit different. Rounder than the drawing. But I guess that could be it.”

“It’s called, uh, Night… Night Fury, I think.”

“Night Fury.”

Arvid contemplated the name while he slowly stroked the wings. They seemed less like scales and more like leather at this part. Then, it shot into his head.

“This thing can fly.”

Eretson scoffed at him and gave him a look that said he was talking absolute nonsense.

“Physically impossible.”

“Technically, yes” Freya drawled, “but this book says they do fly. I’m inclined to trust it.”

Eretson pulled an annoyed face, then sighed and looked to the ceiling. The storm had died down for a moment but started back up again quickly. They hadn’t known this region to storm this much. Once in a while, sure, the ferry wouldn’t go out, but never had a storm come out of nowhere like this, with this much ferocity.

“Can it fly us back home?”

With just this one question, the mood turned sombre. Freya set the old book aside and gave the dragon’s head a stroke. Arvid thought about it. Would it even let them onto its back? Would it carry them in its claws? Perhaps one of them had to fly home and make the dragon fly back to pick them up, could they even train a dragon to do something like that?

“I’m not sure we should be showing this dragon off to anyone.”

Well, that destroyed that line of thought. Arvid glanced over to Freya, who had the most poker face of poker face on in that moment. He didn’t know what she was thinking, but Eretson didn’t even care. He gave a loud huff.

“If we showed up with it instead of just talking about it, we wouldn’t be declared insane.”

“I, just, there’s gotta be a reason we never saw dragons before. Maybe this one is the last, and it hid on Berk, where there are no humans. We shouldn’t talk about it, probably.” Freya glanced back at Arvid and sunk into herself, the fire reflecting brightly on her hair. “Stop judging me, Arvid. Don’t look at me like that.”

He looked away quickly.

“I’m sorry. We, uh, we need to get home somehow. No one knows a water route to Berk, if they even believe we’re still alive.” Arvid glanced back at Freya. She was staring at the door, moving slightly in the wind. He continued quietly. “They might send out a helicopter, but there’s no where for it to land, and it wouldn’t know where we are, we couldn’t signal to it. If they even know we’re on Berk, that is. There’s no signal here, besides, my phone swam away in the waves, so it’s not like we could just call up. The dragon might be our only way off of Berk.”

Eretson nodded in agreement. Freya looked in the dragon’s eyes and sighed.

“I just, I don’t know. There’s gotta be a reason.”

“Well, what are we supposed to do then?” Eretson jumped up in anger, raising his voice with each word. The night fury tattered away from them, looking towards the closed door. “So what if this dragon gets put in a zoo, or whatever? We are going to die here, do you not get that?”

“Don’t shout at me! I’m just worried-“

“Yeah, worried about some random-ass dragon, I get it! So what about it? Is it worth more than your life, than mine, than Arvid’s?” Eretson took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. “I don’t see why you care about this dragon.”

“Because I looked in its eyes and saw myself!” Arvid caught her eye. The fire in her was unmistakeable. Freya went to her feet and walked to Eretson, measuring up to him not in height or strength, but in anger. “This dragon has been here, alone, hid away from the world for one reason or another. Don’t you think I feel for him?” Eretson glared at her.

“I know what your parents did-“

“No, you don’t! You have no clue what I went through!”

“Yes, I do, you’ve told us enough times!”

“You have no idea what I’ve been through!”

“Alright, let’s, uh, calm down here,” Arvid jumped up and stepped between the two. “and think about how we’re going to get away. Because!” The death glare Eretson gave him could not stop him from continuing to talk, though it shook his core. “We don’t even know if this dragon will let us fly on it. So we need to think of a Plan B.” Eretson scoffed.

“Like what, build a boat?” Arvid just gave an exasperated sigh.

“Like make a huge bonfire on the shore we landed on.” Eretson sat back down with his back to the fireplace, and the dragon immediately plopped its head into his lap, making him jump. Freya watched carefully, as if there was a chance he would do something to it. “We made it through with barely a scratch in the storm. If there’s any safe route to Berk, that’s it.”

Freya sat down in front of Eretson, on the other side of the dragon. Arvid still felt blood flowing through his veins from standing between _Eretson_ and _Freya_ of all people, so his legs made him wander the house a little.

There was not much to see inside. They hadn’t actually explored the house, as getting warm had been their first priority, but there were stairs leading into another floor (which he would not go up) and two more rooms in the back. Despite it getting gradually colder the further away he got from the fire, he knew the two would make up, and that he did not have to be there for that to happen. In fact, he’d rather give them space. As soon as he entered another room, freezing cold in only his underwear, he could hear the two whisper in front of the fireplace.

Freya’s parents were doing better now. They’d seen the error of their ways three years ago and have since done everything to provide her with what she needed and wanted. Her parents paid for every single trip on this ferry the three of them had took over the years, paid for every trip to every museum, and are generally helpful when she has troubles. They didn’t use to be, he knew that. Freya had been home-schooled until they let her quit her stupid, dumb-ass job they forced onto her three years ago, so she could finally go to a normal school. Arvid and Eretson had been by her side since, taking the brunt of her frustration in re-socializing with people her age and their community in general.

The room he found himself in next was absolutely destroyed. There was nothing of value he could find here. While the main room seemed fairly intact, this one was all over the place, burn marks on the walls and ground. Did the dragon sleep here?

The second room was a bit more interesting. It was definitely intact and things were hanging off the wall. Well, mostly hanging by a thread, but still hanging. There seemed to be maps of the islands around Berk, sea charts, and other things Arvid could not tell from where he stood. He made his way to a table, old ink still there, though fungus was growing on the bottle. On the table, there was a little package, wrapped in leather, presumably, with what seemed like a letter neatly sitting below a leather strap to hold it together.

“Arvid?” He jumped at the sudden voice of Freya, looking through the doorframe. “Sorry. What are you doing?”

“Uh, well, uh, not much. Are you two fine?”

“Yeah. Eretson apologized. We’re good.” Goosebumps and shivers made their way over her skin. “Ugh. How can you even walk around in this cold? Let’s look around once we’re not half-naked, it’s freezing!”

Arvid nodded and returned to the fireplace with her. It was still weird to see a dragon, just, there, but he still went to its side and immediately enjoyed the warmth its body gave off. His body really was freezing cold at this point. He looked up at their clothes above the fireplace. It would probably take the night, at least, to have them dry. They would have to sleep, half-naked, hungry, in the middle of a storm, in front of a fireplace that would slowly die through the night, with (hopefully) a dragon to warm them.

Eretson was laying on his back now, the dragon’s arm against his chest, his head towards the fire, eyes closed. Freya sat down beside Arvid, also cuddling up with the dragon after being away from the fire and the warmth.

“Soooo,” Eretson started, “I guess we are going with the bonfire to the shore, then?” Arvid grunted in agreement, Freya nodded. “Right. Then, tomorrow, we’re going to have to look for some dry wood. Get this dragon to spit fire at it again, sit at the shore for a while, get picked up as fast as they can find us, right?”

“Right.”

“But. We need to gather water. Otherwise, we will die of thirst. Rainwater is good. We’re gonna have to find something to collect it in asap.”

“I’ve still got my bag with me,” Freya said, holding it up, “it got really heavy in the sea, it’s gonna be able to carry quite a bit, right?”

“Right. We’ll hang it outside somewhere once the wind dies down. But this settlement is going to have a spring somewhere, with a bit of luck it’s not dried down and we’ll find it. Now, we get to the topic of food.” Eretson glanced at his friends. “Does anyone have a clue how we’ll get food?”

Arvid curled up more around the dragon while Freya leaned backward, visibly thinking about the issue. They didn’t know how to fish, they didn’t know how to hunt, maybe they could set traps? How do you even build a trap? Were there even any smaller animals on this island? How would rabbits have come here? There were definitely no rabbits here.

“We’re gonna have to look for fruit or something. This dragon eats something, right?” Freya grabbed the book of dragons and flipped it open again. “It might say something about their eating habits.”

“Okay. You look in that book, and I’ll… Have a nap.”

Arvid snickered. Eretson gave a wide grin and stretched like a cat, yawning loudly and placing his hand on the dragon’s arm. Sleep it was, then.

“I’ll try the same. You can wake me up if the fire’s dying and you’re too tired to find dry wood.” Eretson giggled, causing Arvid to stare at him in confusion.

“Wood.” Freya groaned, which only caused him to laugh out loud instead of giggle. Arvid grinned. “What, you wanna give Freya some of your wood?”

“Oh, you bet.”

“Arvid! What on earth are you saying!”

“What, I want to give you some wood later. What’s wrong with that?” Eretson was losing it, wheezing from laughter, and Freya… Poor Freya was hiding behind the dragon’s tail. “No, really, if you want me to get something later, wake me up, okay? If I even sleep.” She peeked out from behind the dragon, which was looking very interested at the commotion going on around the lower side of its body.

“I hate you guys sometimes.”

“We know that.”

 

 

A low rumbling noise woke Arvid. Groggily, he turned over, trying to remember where he was. There was a dead fire beside him, and the world was silent. No one else was there. Freya and Eretson must have gone outside, or something. The rumbling noise returned and… it was his stomach. Arvid was _real_ hungry after that night.

He stayed still on the floor for a moment. He had to remind himself that yes, this was all happening, they were clearly on Berk. The dragon – probably also real. The storm had passed, it was comfortably warm, the clothes over the fireplace probably dry (he deduced this because only his were still hanging), he was hungry and, yeah, thirsty too.

Outside, he thought he heard steps and voices, so Arvid got dressed and went outside to join Freya and Eretson, who were bathing in the sun. It was still cool, as it usually was, and windy as well, but the sun absolutely did wonders.

“Sleeping beauty! You’re awake!” Arvid rolled his eyes at Eretson and went to lean onto the wall next to him. “I can’t believe you actually slept.”

“Honestly? I’m feeling pretty good.”

“What a weirdo. I didn’t sleep a wink.” Arvid gave a glance to his face, and then tried to look over at Freya as well.

“Were you just waiting for me?”

Freya shrugged.

“Kinda? Look.” Freya gestured towards the horizon. “I mean, I guess you can’t see it right now, but, ah!”

From nowhere – absolute nowhere, nothing was in the sky, nothing was in the wind – a dragon appeared before them, dashing towards them, flying upwards before Arvid could react in any way other than ducking. It shot something into the air and as lightning swallowed it, the dragon disappeared.

“What.”

“Yeah, I know right?” Eretson stretched his arms gently towards the sky. “The thing disappears. In a puff of smoke and lightning.” He let his arms drop to his sides. “It apparently decided to show us what it can do. I mean, I’m impressed, are you?”

“Yeah. Uh, yeah. Who wouldn’t be? Wow.” The dragon let itself be seen once more, flew some loops and decided to land next to the trio, blowing sand and dirt into the air as it did. “I guess this is how it kept itself from being seen?”

“The book says you can’t see it because it’s black all over. I’m not sure they knew of this, uh, feature,” Freya claimed, flipping through the old book in her hand. “I’m not even sure how this is possible. I mean, sure, some animals can look like their surroundings, but this is outright disappearing.”

The dragon snuck beneath Freya’s arm and let itself be stroked (or, how it seemed, asked to be stroked) while the three of them stared at the creature in awe.

“If it can hide-“

“Yeah, it can take us home and no one would see it,” Freya agreed. “I just wouldn’t know what to tell the people looking for us.”

Eretson stepped towards the dragon’s wings and let his hand run down the leathery skin.

“If we can control this thing, we could make it fly us to another island, and then just say the waves brought us there. At least on the other islands they are more likely to get to us.”

“Can we control this thing?”

Arvid and Eretson looked over to Freya, who was making an expression as if she knew what they were going to say.

“Alright.”

Slowly, carefully, she went around the dragon’s head and placed her hands firmly on its body. She swung her leg onto its back and as soon as she hit, the dragon reared back and threw her off, sending her flying – but not as intended. Freya simply spread out all limbs when she settled on the ground and gave a loud huff of defeat. The dragon inspected her in a worried manner.

“That didn’t work.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if anyone was waiting for this chapter or anything... Sorry if you were. I'm never going to have a regular update schedule. I hope you enjoyed it anyway.


End file.
